Commodities: WTI lower after US rig count data, gold threatens drop below $1,200/oz.

Commodities saw almost across-the-board declines at the start of the week, with oil futures weighed down by further gains in the US dollar, predictions for increased supplies and a jump in the US oil rig count.

The US dollar spot index, which tracks the value of the Greenback versus the currencies of its main trading partners, was up by just 0.08% to 96.433.

However, it was sharply higher against a raft of Emerging Market currencies, including the Turkish lira, Indian rupee, or South African rand - as well as China's yuan.

Against that backdrop, October-dated Brent futures were skidding 1.95% lower on the ICE to $71.39 a barrel.

Further weighing on crude futures, in its latest monthly Oil Market report, the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries raised its projections for global supply growth in 2018 and 2019 by 73,000 and 106,000 barrels a day each.

In tandem, OPEC also lowered its forecasts for demand growth in each of those years by 20,000 b/d..

Capping it all off, on 10 August, Baker Hughes reported that the number of US oil rigs in operation had jumped by 10 to 869.

Not surprisingly, gasoline and heating oil futures on NYMEX were off by 2.44% and 1.48% to $1.9895 and $2.1080, respectively.

Precious metals were also lower, with gold futures on COMEX threatening to fall below $1,200/oz. for the first time since early-2017.

Spot platinum meanwhile was erasing 3.45% to $799.06/oz..

Base metals fared better, buoyed by the release of Chinese bank lending data for July that pointed to a degree of support for the economy in the very near-term.

Indeed, three-month LME copper had finished the session at $6,153 per tonne, after opening at $6,150 per tonne.

There was also heavy selling to be seen in the agricultural space, with the December wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade down by 2.46% a $5.5550 a bushel and ICE-traded cotton#2 falling 3.73% o $0.8205 a pound.